What GOTS means – a short note on those four letters.

GOTS – the Global Organic Textile Standard – is the strictest organic textile certification in the world. It audits the entire chain: the field the cotton was grown in, the gin where the fibre was separated, the spinning mill, the knitter, the dyehouse, the finishing facility, the warehouse the garment was packed in. Every link has to be certified independently. Break the chain at any point and the piece loses the right to the four letters on the label. What that translates to, in the cotton against your skin right now. The seed was non-GMO. The field had been free of synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilisers for at least three years before harvest. The water used to grow it was tracked. The people who picked it were paid to GOTS’ social criteria. The cotton was spun without the chlorine and formaldehyde that conventional underwear quietly relies on. That is the difference between cotton that says organic and cotton that says GOTS-certified. If you have read this far, though, the standard is the answer to the question most people stop asking – what was actually in the cotton I put on this morning. Welcome to the Stonekin wardrobe.